- The Scotland rail service has replaced the voice of the human train announcement with an AI on some routes
- Voice technology is driven by the Swedish company Readspeaker
- A voice actor states that the company is using its voice without permission, but Readspeaker says that it has “comprehered” these complaints “
If you live in Scotland, or have ever visited our beautiful country and traveled on a train, you will probably have heard the padded Lilt pads of the female voice ad and other information station.
However, the Scotrail trains has now replaced the iconic voice with AI, causing a fuss among travelers, and the claims of a voice actor that Scotrail has stolen his voice.
The new Lia’s announcer is called Iona, and the robotic voice has replaced the human that most Scots have grown up. IONA is currently being implemented on routes throughout Scotland, but so far it has been found hostility.
I hate the new voice of Scotrail Ai announcer. It sounds like a Scottish Hal version from Space Odyssey!May 17, 2025
AI VOICES uses voice text technology that allows trains drivers to enter ads that are then spoken throughout the public address system by Iona.
That is my voice!
After the initial reaction against AI’s voice deployment, Scotrail responded in X, saying: “Give it time and can grow in you.”
A person in which the voice is not growing is the Gayanne Potter voice actor, who accused the company of Scottish trains of theft of his voice. Potter is a voice actor who did some work for the Swedish company Readspeaker in 2021.
Readspeaker is the company behind Iona, and at that time, Mrs. Potter was told that her voice work would only be used for accessibility and electronic learning software.
After a friend sent a link to the Readspeaker website, Potter recognized the voice, noticing similarities between her own tone and that of Iona, a person who Scotrail is marketing as a scottish woman redhead, with an image that is also, of course, generated by AI.
Mrs. Potter told the BBC: “It’s my voice, I’m absolutely sure it’s my voice.” Potter has been in a dispute with Readspeaker about the use of his voice for two years.
In response to complaints, Readspeaker told the BBC: “Readspeaker is aware of Mrs. Potter’s concerns and has approached them comprehensively with the legal representative of Mrs. Potter several times in the past.”
In the BBC report you can listen to a comparison between Mrs. Potter and Iona. It cannot be denied that the voices are very similar, although the real problem here is the protection of workers in the creative industry and the awareness of how they sign their rights when producing work.
Potter said: “It is quite difficult for people in the creative industry to maintain careers, but compete with a robotic version of yourself only add insult to injuries.”
This is only the last controversy in the debate about who possesses what in the world in rapid evolution. Potter says he did not know at that time that his voice would be used to train a robotics heard in all Scotland. Now, she can’t escape her ‘own’ voice.
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